The Expendables 2 Review

20Aug

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another film review and today’s review will be of the action sequel to The Expendables, The Expendables 2!

So it is the latter half of the summer with only a few weeks separating us from September and the eventual return to academic life for us students, but before that comes around it looks like the summer film season will keep us entertained at the cinema for quite some time. And so enter The Expendables 2 and I’m just gonna let you guys know right now… This film was great, just a load of fun from start to finish. Not perfect by any means, but still better than some of the other films I’ve seen in the cinema.

Back in 2010 we had The Expendables, a crazy action film full of explosions, hand-to-hand combat scenes and loads of firefights. It was film that summoned several of the big action stars of the 80s into one place with a few new faces to fight alongside them. The cast including Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Gary Daniels, Randy Couture, Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Steve Austin and two cameo appearances from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. While it received a mixed reception it was commercially successful and I think most people who weren’t hardcore critics enjoyed the film. So then fast forward to 2012 with the action sequel which has more stars, action and explosions and to be honest it is so much better for it.

Story

The story of this film is as follows:

“The film follows The Expendables, a mercenary group, as they seek revenge against Jean Vilain, a rival mercenary who murders one of their own, and threatens the world with a deadly weapon.”

While there was a plot in the film, like the first film it is overly important, though it is a bit better than the first film in the sense that it doesn’t drag as much and feels a little more relevent to the characters involved. Though the plot’s only there to give the characters a reason to run and gun and blow things up. It does annoy me a little bit that action films these days can’t have a good or smart plot, but for this kind of film I’ll let it slide because it’s just fun to watch. Within the plot there are references aplenty, the script for this film is funny. Humour seems to be the aim of the game for this film and it works. Heck, if it can work for The Avengers then why no The Expendables 2? There are some lines that each of the action stars are given which are hilarious throwbacks to their previous films, whether they were visual or audio references, they worked very nicely.

Characters

This film boasts an impressive cast that in a lot of ways is even more impressive than the last film. While you have Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, Li, Couture and Crews returning, you also get Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger coming back in much more substantial roles. And then add into the mix Liam Hemsworth, Yu Nan, Scott Adkins and finally the awesomeness that is Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris and you have film full of badasses!

So much badassness in one area!

Seeing all of these cool people in one film was just grand. Stallone I still applaud him for continuing to do these action films and showing us even though he’s old, he’s still kicking! Jet Li’s fight scenes in this film were a hell of a lot better than the last film, so tight and so brutal! Terry Crews who I am a massive fan of was great in this film, delivering funny lines, battle cries and just being a badass in general. Statham had some great fight scenes too and newcomer Yu Nan had some awesome scenes herself. I also loved Van Damme in this film, he was so cool, so calm and awesome as the villain. Then there’s the awesomeness that’s Chuck Norris, I wasn’t sure what to expect but he was just utterly cool, pure and simple, I loved every second he was on-screen. And then there’s Arnie the frigging Terminator!!! Just seeing him in any scene I was hyped, while he’s a little stiff (granted because he’s old), he delivers some funny lines and when you see him walking and shooting stuff I swear it was like watching him as the T-800 all over again, I loved it!

With a film that has such a huge ensemble cast, there were moments where it felt like some characters didn’t get as much screen time as others and while it’s not as bad as X-Men 3, some characters do get lost in the background.

Presentation

When it comes to action The Expendables 2 was just full of insane amounts action! It was pure and utter chaos and I loved it. The fight scenes were well-choreographed, the fire fights were so insane to the point where it looked like a crazy online game of Call of Duty and all of the explosions were great. I can’t explain why the all of these crazy scenes and action sequences were so good, but when they happened I just got a great level of satisfaction from watching all of the carnage. So much brutality, death and destruction and yet it was so good to watch, maybe it was due to all that testosterone and epic manliness. Also the soundtrack by Brian Tyler is decent too as it fuels all of the badass action on-screen and borrows the main theme from the last film and while it’s not overly memorable it still sounds good.

In conclusion The Expendables 2 is one hell of a film. It’s unashamedly loud, proud, cheesy and doesn’t take itself seriously and it all works. Seeing all of these action stars running around and fighting each other, shooting things and blowing stuff up was just so much fun. I was enjoying myself throughout. While the film wasn’t as amazing as I thought it should have been and certain stars didn’t get as much screen time as they should have done. The Expendables 2 is still hella fun and I recommend to all people just wanting some summer fun at the cinema.

Also with talks of a third film in the works, it seems like these kinds of films are here to stay! Just add Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vin Diesel, Steven Seagal, Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes (if he can get out of jail) and that’ll work for me.

Rating: 7.5

Well that’s been my review ladies and gentlemen, hopefully you enjoyed it. Be sure to drop me a comment and let me know what you thought of the film. Until next time, laters! 😀